Surf Expo is officially over, which leaves us with nothing to do but reflect on the three days of our lives we can never get back. I don’t think I am supposed to talk about the poor economy or its potentially detrimental effects on our industry, but I’m going to anyway. This was definitely the sparsest Expo I’ve been to. Extra-wide hallways made up for the fact there just weren’t as many exhibitors, and almost fooled everyone.

The good news is the wake section of the show was actually quite bustling.  Wakeskating had its best showing ever with several wakeboard manufacturers getting in on the game and four of the independent companies having legit booths. The morale at the end of the day Sunday was as good as could be expected, after three days of schmoozing and spending all day hungover (for some people anyway.)

The best part of expo is you really get caught up on the industry. Who’s riding for who,  etc. Here’s some of what we learned today. Looks like Clint Tompkins will finally be trading in his Kampus for a Company Wakeskate, that is, as soon as they have them. Gabe Paulson is the newest rider on the Mutinty Team, although you may already know that since Integrity was webcasting live all weekend. Oh and Matt Hooker may be the first pro wakeskater rocking Teva Wakeskate shoes. Yeah, I just said Teva is making wakeskate shoes. They look like you could hike a mountain in them, but I’m going to reserve judgment until Matt rides in them and reports back.

So that’s most of the juicy gossip. Now watch the video and check out some pictures of sweet pros hanging out at Expo today.

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